The present invention relates to a fastener for inserting and attaching documents and other items to a wire bound medium such as a notebook or tablet.
Wire bound notebooks and, particularly, spiral wire bound notebooks are familiar to the student, office worker, record keeper and stationarie. While the spiral wire binder ensures a permanent record and prevents accidental separation of the documents it retains, its chief shortcoming is that it is impractical for making insertions. In fact, from the standpoint of making insertions, the spiral wire binder is as unsuitable as it is suitable for preserving a permanent record. Typically, in order to make an insert into a wire bound volume such as a notebook, the user is forced to fold the documents and place them unattached between adjacent leaves of the notebook or to attach the insert using a clip, staple, or an adhesive tape. More often than not, additions remain unattached in the notebook and they are easily lost or misplaced. While clips and the like offer a degree of permanence, very often it is desired to make the insert at a point in the notebook which has already been recorded with information or data. In this case, when the insert is attached it must overlay a portion of the recorded information making that information inaccessible particularly to a brief scanning of the notebook pages. Thus, while the wire bound notebook is a widely used and convenient medium for maintaining records, better means are required for making insertions and additions.
There have been a variety of approaches to the problem of making inerts of wire bound media in the art. Some of these are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,704 and French Patent No. 7707732. While these patents share the objective of the present invention, they are designed differently and do not have its advantages. The fastener disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,704 is designed with structurally dissimilar tab and hook portions. In the adaptor featured in French Patent No. 7707732 access to the wire retaining apertures is through a narrow slot or channel. This fastener design is subject to wear and is more susceptible to tear damage than the invention fastener.